The present invention relates to an electronic timepiece with mixed time setting, comprising a step motor driving, by means of a gear train, at least seconds, minutes and hour hands, an integrated circuit incorporating, among other components, an oscillator, a frequency divider, a control and time setting circuits and a feed circuit capable of supplying the motor with pulses of normal frequency, of rapid frequency or of zero frequency, a quartz resonator, an electric feed source and control and time setting means comprising at least one time setting stem actuating a first contact, a push button actuating a second contact and an hour-by-hour mechanical or magnetic correcting device making it possible to correct the position of the hour hand by steps of 1/12th of a turn without affecting the display of the minutes and seconds.
An object of the present invention is to provide a simplification of the time setting mechanism of an electronic timepiece with analog display, comprising a device making it possible to correct the position of the hour hand independently of that of the other hands by steps of 1/12th of a turn, for example to change of a time-zone. The mechanical simplification is obtained by the addition of an electronic circuit to the integrated circuit, for it is known that the price of such a circuit is only slightly influenced by the addition of a few extra components.
According to the present invention there is provided an electronic timepiece with mixed time setting, comprising a step motor, driving, by way of a train of gear wheels, at least the seconds, minutes and hour hands, an integrated circuit incorporating among other components, an oscillator, a frequency divider, a control and time setting circuit and a feed circuit capable of supplying the motor with pulses of normal frequency, of rapid frequency or of zero frequency, a quartz resonator, an electric feed source and control and time setting means, comprising at least one time setting stem actuating a first contact, a push button actuating a second contact and an hour-by-hour mechanical or magnetic correction device, making it possible to correct the position of the hour hand by 1/12 of a turn without affecting the display of the minutes and seconds, in which the integrated circuit comprises an auxiliary circuit controlled by the action of the second contact and arranged in such manner as to supply the motor, by way of the feed circuit, with trains of driving pulses of rapid frequency corresponding to the displacement of the gear wheels by an amount equivalent to a complete turn of the seconds hand, the time-setting stem having a specific axial position in which it actuates the first contact and simultaneously engages the hour-by-hour correction device.
The present invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.